The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms reissue - Delayed?

A few weeks ago I posted the good news the The Feelies Crazy Rhythms was going to be reissued by a label called Water Records on February 5th. My friend Dan noted in the comments that the reissue never materialized on that date, and the release is no longer listed at Amazon.

I've done a little homework to see what's going on here. In short, I fear the worst. A few e-commerce sites have the reissue listed as delayed until mid-March. I hope that's the case. But I should point out that the website of the distributor/manufacturer for Water, Runt Distribution, is now essentially down. I called Runt for info and their number has been disconnected. My email to Runt was bounced back to me. I don't want to start any false rumors, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what is going on here. I don't know what's going on, but I have inquiries out to a few people who might.

I suspect we'll learn more about this situation in the coming weeks. But I have a bad feeling about this, especially since Runt is also the distributor/manufacturer for the much loved vinyl reissue label Four Men With Beards.

I'll keep you updated as I learn more. Until then, here's a little something to hold you over until this reissue materializes.

Original Love [right click to download]

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - Mavericks

Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey's 1991 album Mavericks is another welcome recent reissue. As with most things dB's related, this album was criminally overlooked when it was originally released. Collector's Choice seems determined to right past wrongs, having reissued a bunch of dB's related material over the past several years. Kudos to them.

The reissue has a handful of bonus tracks and freshly remastered sound, making it a worthwhile purchase for new and old fans alike.

This is currently my 5-year-old son's favorite album. He fell under the spell of Holsapple and Stamey while listening to this album in the car. He was quite excited when I told him the two were at work on a brand-new album, and he now asks me if it's out yet every other day. Considering it's been over 15 years since the first one was released, he may have to wait a while longer. It seems Mr. Holsapple and Stamey are teaching my son the virtue of patience--the last time I told him it wasn't out yet he replied "I'm sure it will be worth the wait!" At least now he will have some bonus tracks to hold him over.

And lest anyone think I am trying to shape my son into some sort of miniature indie-rock hipster--he also likes the Hannah Montana song that is currently tearing up the charts.

The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms

See my update on this.

Good news! The Feelies first album, 1980's Crazy Rhythms, is being reissued by Water Records on February 5th. It's currently available for pre-order at Amazon and on some other sites.

According to the track list, it looks like the cover of "Paint It Black" that was recorded in 1990 for A&M's initial CD reissue of the album is included, but I can't vouch for that. Also no word on remastering, etc. Whatever the case, this is most welcome news. Crazy Rhythms was one of my favorite albums released in the 80s, and it's nice to see it back in print.

If you don't already own a copy, this is an essential purchase. I couldn't recommend this album more highly.

Groovy Decay

Yep Roc (or possibly Robyn Hitchcock) decided not to include Hitchcock's second solo album, Groovy Decay on the I Wanna Go Backwards box-set. Instead, they reissued the album exclusively as a digital download. It's now available directly from Yep Roc, on emusic and on iTunes.

It's hard to argue with the decision. Groovy Decay (and its demo-heavy doppelganger Groovy Decoy) is probably Hitchcock's least well regarded album. Hitchcock himself has all but disavowed it. Also, including it would have blown any chances that Hitchcock would be declared the godfather of freak-folk.

The truth is there are some very good songs on the album ("52 Stations," "America," "The Cars She Used To Drive"), along with a few clunkers ("Old People Scream," "Midnight Fish"). But the whole album is undeniably weighed down by its slick, "new wave" production aesthetic, and the reliance on horns and synths to carry the melodies rather than guitars. Unlike much of Hitchcock's work, Groovy Decay sounds dated.

Listening to the album I am reminded of the episode of Freaks and Geeks in which Sam is convinced by a clothing store sales clerk at the local mall (brilliantly played by Joel Hodgson) that all his troubles with the ladies will be over if he purchases a snazzy new "Parisian Night Suit" (which is really nothing more than a hideous powder-blue polyester jumpsuit). The results are predictably painful. No one should wear a "Parisian Night Suit," but some people (say, John Travolta) are capable of pulling off the look anyway. But poor Sam can't because the Parisian Night Suit is simply the opposite of who he is.

Groovy Decay is Robyn Hitchcock's Parisian Night Suit moment insofar as he dresses his music up in a style that simple doesn't fit his musical personality. Somebody convinced him that if he only adapted his style to the slick new-wave ethos of the era that he could have a hit. To his eternal regret he followed their advice, and the results, while not exactly cringe-worthy, are at least a little embarrassing in retrospect.

None of this should discourage you from downloading the album. No, it's not Hitchcock's best work. Yes, it sounds more than a little dated. But it is still certainly possible to hear the good songs beneath the production.

A few things got left off the latest digital incarnation of Groovy Decay. The demo version of "Midnight Fish" was originally released on Groovy Decoy, which featured mostly demos recorded in advance of the Groovy Decay sessions. Even the demos, recorded with former Soft Boy Matthew Seligman, are slicker and more produced than anything Hitchcock had recorded up to that point in his career. Special "disco" versions of "Night Ride To Trindad" and "Kingdom Of Love," originally issued in 1982 on a 12" single (a misguided attempt to get played in clubs?) were also omitted from the program. Can the world survive without disco versions of Robyn Hitchcock songs? I suspect so. But you shouldn't have to if you don't want to.

Also, since this album is no longer available in any worlds but the virtual one (or perhaps in some other parallel universe in which people prefer dancing to Robyn Hitchcock over Rihanna and J-Lo) it no longer comes with any tactile artwork. But that is no excuse for the lo-rez image--gleaned no doubt from a quick Google image search--Yep Roc features on their website. Feel free to paste the artwork above into your iTunes library.

Soul Asylum - Welcome To The Minority Box

On August 10th Hip-O Select will re-release Soul Asylum's two A&M albums along with a CD of previously unissued live material from 1990 in a box set called Welcome To The Minority. Both Hang Time and ...And The Horse They Rode In On have been out-of-print for years now, so it is good to see this material coming back into print, even if only in a limited edition, internet only form.

I do have one major complaint about the set. It seems that the bonus material from Horse that I posted here earlier ("One Way Conversation," "Little House On The Edge" and "Village Idiot") will not be included in the set. It is a curious omission considering the promo-only material from Hang Time is included on the first disc. I sent an email to Hip-O asking about the oversight, and will let you know if I hear anything back. It's hard to imagine there is a good reason for this, but you never know. It seems like a missed opportunity to include everything in the UMG vaults that would be of interest to hardcore fans of the group. A remix of "Something Out Of Nothing" is on the Horse disc, for those who have been dying to hear that.

The third disc looks to be fairly representative of the band's live shows at the time, and includes covers of "The Tracks Of My Tears," "I Put A Spell On You," and "To Sir With Love" as well as a smattering of tracks from their indie days that were always highlights of any Soul Asylum show ("Freaks," "Closer To The Stars," "Made To Be Broken"). The live disc will no doubt be quite welcome to old-school fans of the band like myself who find the slickness of After The Flood off-putting (although you gotta love "Rhinestone Cowboy"). Soul Asylum were in my opinion one of the best live acts around during the late eighties and early nineties. (I am holding out hope that Hip-O Select will release a similar set for the Feelies, because I would love to hear a vintage live show from them as well--if you feel the same way, send Hip-O Select an email).

"James At 16 (Heavy Medley)" is a bonus track on disc one of the set, having originally been issued as a b-side to a promo only 12" for "Standing In The Doorway." It is an absolute killer medley that goes a long way toward suggesting just how much fun a Soul Asylum live show could be. Any band that can segue seamlessly from The Nuge into The Gap Band deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest of all time. I'm only leaving this track up for a couple days since it will soon be available commercially.

Love - Blue Thumb Recordings Review on Pitchfork

Pitchfork has a review of the Love Blue Thumb Recordings box set up today. It's a good review and worth a read.

Love - The Blue Thumb Recordings (Review)

I got my package from Hip-O Select yesterday that included the Love Blue Thumb Recordings 3 CD set. Kudos to Hip-O Select for releasing this material, and for the fast shipping. First the good news: the sound quality is very good. Producer Bill Levenson and mastering engineer Suha Gur did not make any attempt to re-write history. For better or worse, Out Here and False Start sound pretty much like the original LPs, which in my opinion is a good thing. Hip-O got the most important part of the project right--the sound.

I do have a couple of complaints though. First, $40 + $8 shipping makes this a fairly expensive purchase, and the packaging could have been more deluxe. I had hoped the CDs would be housed in slipcase replicas of the original LPs, but instead they are packaged in a very plain tri-fold digipak, with a rather skimpy jewel case insert. The liner notes by Dave Thompson are short, do not go into much depth, and contain a couple obvious inaccuracies. Please keep in mind I know nothing about the realities of how to make a profit off music in an era of declining sales, so my complaints, though minor, are likely churlish.

Of course the music is what's really important. Disc one features the double LP Out Here in its entirety. I've already told you what I think about the music on Out Here: it's frustratingly uneven. That said, it's nice to have the convenience of a "skip" button when listening to it, so I'm happy to have a copy on CD.

Disc two features False Start, Love's second and final Blue Thumb LP. For this album Lee assembled yet another new Love lineup. Gary Rowles replaced lead guitarist Jay Donnellan, and Noony Ricket was added on rhythm guitar and sometimes rather prominent backing vocals. Frank Fayad (bass) and George Suranovich (drums) stuck around from the previous incarnation of the band.

False Start is best-known for the Jimi Hendrix guitar solo that graces the lead off track, "The Everlasting First," which partly obscures the fact that the album finds Lee moving away from heavy (white) psychedelic rock and toward an embrace of (black) soul music. That transition would not be complete until Reel To Real, but Lee lets his blackness come "shining through" on soulful tracks such as "Keep On Shining," "Flying," "Anytime," and "Feel Daddy Feel Good."

Unlike the spotty Out Here, False Start is a consistently good record. It is also much shorter, clocking in at less than 30 minutes. It's an enjoyable listen from start to finish. A single live track "Stand Out" originally featured on Out Here, and recorded at a February 1970 UK gig, suggests that Love Mach 2.5 was one heck of a live act.

Which brings me to the final disc of this package; a live CD featuring previously unreleased material recorded on the same 1970 UK tour. Considering how excellent the live version of "Stand Out" featured on False Start is, I found the live disc mildly disappointing. Although I have no evidence for this beyond what my ears tell me, listening to the newly uncovered live material suggests that the False Start version of "Stand Out" was subjected to some rather extensive studio sweetening. First of all, there is the matter of Lee's voice: there is clearly a different, less reverberant, acoustic surrounding his voice on "Stand Out" than on the material on the live disc (some of which was recorded at the same February 27 show). Also, something sounds mildly off about Lee's voice on the newly uncovered live material, it sounds like he had a tooth pulled or something. The False Start version of “Stand Out” also features some rather polished backing vocals that are entirely absent from the live recordings featured on Disc three of this set. Make of that what you will.

The quirk to Lee's voice is mildly distracting, but the band sounds good throughout. It's interesting to hear some of the material from Forever Changes and Da Capo played by this band, although it is fairly obvious they were much more at home playing the less subtle, heavier material like "August," "Good Times" and "Singing Cowboy." The final track, a much more efficient version of "Love Is More Than Words Or Better Late Than Never" than the eleven-plus minute version featured on Out Here, really shows what this band was capable of live.

Despite the fact that I was mildly disappointed with this set, it's still an excellent addition to any Love fan's collection, particularly if you do not already own the two featured studio LPs already. Whether the live material from 1970 is enough to justify purchase for the true fanatic is not for me to decide. I have no regrets.

Love - The Blue Thumb Recordings

For you Love fanatics with more money than sense, Hip-O Select has released a 3 CD box, Love: The Blue Thumb Recordings (mine is on order). The box includes Out Here and False Start, the two studio albums Arthur Lee and Love recorded for Blue Thumb records, plus a live disc that contains a previously unreleased 1970 UK live gig. Word on the street is that Bill Levenson and Suha Gur did a great remastering job.

This is my first order from Hip-O Select, a division of Universal Music Group that suspiciously resembles Warner Music Group's Rhino Handmade. I'll let you know what I think of the sound quality and packaging when I get my copy. I also ordered the "lost" Funkadelic album, By Way Of The Drum, since I'm paying for shipping already and because it looks interesting.

New Releases Today: Wilco + The Remains

I'm going to head to my local record shop today to pick up a new release and a reissue. I was somewhat relieved to discover that I can buy the new Wilco album, Sky Blue Sky, without the secret shame of feeling like an old man trying to be hip, because according to the young whippersnappers at Pitchfork, Wilco are no longer cool. In fact, Wilco are now so uncool they make "dad-rock." This is a welcome development for me, because I had to pay a 16-year old skater kid $5 bucks to pick up A Ghost Is Born for me while I waited in a back-alley behind the record store hoping no one from my son's preschool spotted me. No need to do that for this release. I can just pull my minivan up the curb, waltz into the record store and order a heaping helping of dad-rock, Wilco-style. What a relief.

The reissue is one of the great overlooked albums from the 60s: The Remains (later known as Barry & The Remains). This is a fantastic garage rock album that includes the wonderful "Don't Look Back," which was a highlight of the original Nuggets compilation, and penned by Billy Vera (yes, that Billy Vera). Leader Barry Tashian later showed up on Gram Parson's first solo album, and drummer N.D. Smart II went on to play with Parsons in the International Submarine Band, as well as on Grievous Angel. Smart also played drums for Mountain, Great Speckled Bird, and The Hello People (yes, those Hello People).

Crippled Pilgrims

When I was going through my record collection looking for long out-of-print material, I was pretty sure that Head Down-Hand Out and Under Water by Washington D.C.'s Crippled Pilgrims wouldn't be available on CD. I knew of the group largely as a local act growing up outside D.C. (and they weren't even that popular there). But to my surprise and delight, Reaction Recordings has reissued the band's entire recorded output on a single CD, Down Here: Collected Recordings (1983-1985).

Crippled Pilgrims were the right band in the wrong place during the wrong time with the wrong name. Back in the early eighties D.C. was known mostly for harDCore (Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Govt. Issue, etc.). But Crippled Pilgrims were closer in sound and spirit to fellow D.C. misfits The Velvet Monkeys (in fact legendary Velvet Monkey's drummer The Rummager sat in on drums for the band's early gigs). It probably didn't help that the name Crippled Pilgrims kind of sounds like it could belong to a hardcore band. But Crippled Pilgrims sound was quite far removed from the orthodoxies of the harDCore scene. Instead they played a variation of college rock that mixed parts psychedelia, depressive U.K. post-punk, and jangly, Byrdsian guitars. Eventually this kind of music would become known as "alternative" rock. If Crippled Pilgrims had hailed from L.A. they would have been lumped together with The Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate as part of the "Paisley Underground" and sold a decent amount of records. Likewise, if they had gotten their start in D.C. circa 1990, they would likely sold respectably on Mark Robinson's indie-pop Teen Beat label. But in 1984, nobody in D.C. knew quite what to make of their music, so they languished in obscurity.

In many ways the Crippled Pilgrims music sounds like a lot of "alternative" music that has followed in the band's invisible wake. But, perhaps because songwriter Jay Moglia and guitarist Scott Wingo more or less stumbled upon the ingredients in their sonic stew by happenstance rather than allegiance to an already codified style, there is an element of freshness and innocence to it missing from much later alt-rock/indie-pop.

The liner notes to the CD are fantastic, shedding light on a little remembered band. Kudos again to Reaction Recordings, for saving some terrific music from eternal obscurity. The download "So Clean" is via Parasol's free downloads page. It's not the track I would have picked (I would have gone with "Black and White" or "People Going Nowhere" from the EP), but hopefully it's good enough to convince you that the rest of the CD is worth checking out, because it is.

So Clean [right click to download]

Richard Lloyd - Field of Fire (Revisited)

How much would you pay for a remastered reissue of Television guitarist Richard Lloyd's second solo album Field of Fire? How about $17.95? A fair price when major labels are charging close to $20 for many CD reissues. How about the low, low price of $12.50? Don't answer yet, because that's not all you'll get. Included with every copy is a second CD that presents the music stripped of its dated 80s production with more guitars, fewer synths, and newly recorded vocals! Don't answer yet because as an added bonus you get two tracks not on the original LP. But wait, that's not all you'll get! You also get liner notes from Ric Menck (Velvet Crush), Bill Flanagan and Richard Lloyd. But don't answer yet because you also get a CD jewel case! ...Okay, maybe the jewel case isn't so exciting, but you get the idea--this is a high quality reissue.

Aside from complaining about music hasn't been reissued (but should be), and music that is needlessly being reissued for the umpteenth time, I sometimes like to draw attention to recent reissues that have been done right. Field of Fire (Deluxe) is an object lesson in the right way to do a reissue. Kudos to Lloyd and Reaction Recordings, the new reissue division of Parasol Records, for doing everything better than perfect.

When Lloyd recorded Field of Fire in 1985, he was coming out of a difficult period in his life both personally and professionally. Lloyd had been suffering from what are sometimes euphemistically referred to as "health" problems (aka drug addiction) that had nearly destroyed his music career. To hear Lloyd tell it he had been through his own personal field of fire after hitting a "bottom" that "would have made Dante or Hieronymus Bosch proud." The details surrounding the recording of this album are laid out in Lloyd's liner notes better than I could explain them here, so I won't bother.

Personally, I always felt Field of Fire was a very good album with some great guitar work, but hampered to a large degree by a production style that already sounded dated by the time the album was released by Celluloid Records in the U.S. in 1987. For lack of a better term, the album is plagued by the "big 80s drum sound" pioneered by producers like Steve Lillywhite. It's a sound that works just fine for bombastic arena rockers like U2, but has spoiled many albums by artists like Marshall Crenshaw, Chris Stamey and Richard Lloyd whose music is best presented in a more subtle fashion.

I always hated it when one of my favorite artists gave in to the "big 80s drum sound." Though the sound was considered commercial at the time, I doubt it created any additional sales for the artists who adopted it. On the contrary, it mostly helped alienate an already established fanbase who would accuse the artist of "selling out." But the real problem with the sound--in which the drums are brought way up in the mix with tons of added reverb--is that it tends to overwhelm the rest of the music, and it could make a drummer as subtle as Max Roach sound mechanical.

Mercifully, Lloyd managed to strip the drums of this overbearing sound for the revised second disc, and the result is an altogether more listenable album. In the past, I always felt I had to listen through the production, and with the new disc I feel like I can finally hear the actual music for the first time. Lloyd also stripped away some dated synths and replaced them with additional guitar, and re-recorded his sometimes overly horse, shouted vocals. The results can stand proudly alongside Television's classic albums and Lloyd's outstanding first solo album Alchemy. Field of Fire is finally the great guitar album it was always meant to be. I imagine revisiting a 20 year-old recording could present its own field of fire for an artist, but this project is 110% successful, and an absolutely essential purchase for any Television fan.

Parasol has made the "revisited" version of the title song available as a free MP3 download on their website. The only complaint I have is that the new version features a shortened version of the this track. But if they hadn't done that there would be no reason whatsoever to listen to the original album again. And hey, if for some strange reason you are nostalgic for that "big 80s drum sound" it's still there untouched on the first CD. Nothing's been dropped down the memory hole here. Check it out.

Field of Fire [right click to download]

Elvis Costello Reissues Coming!!!!!

Good news everybody! Elvis Costello's entire catalog is being re-issued and repackaged by Universal's reissue imprint, Hip-O! This long overdue upgrade of his catalog begins over an entire year after Rhino completed their overhaul of Costello's catalog (the last double disc Rhino reissue, The Juliet Letters was released on March 21, 2006).

The new reissue program gets started with the May 1 release of two compilations, The Best Of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years and Rock and Roll Music. Rock and Roll Music will feature an unreleased version of "Welcome To The Working Week" in anticipation of the 30th anniversary deluxe edition of My Aim Is True, which will be followed by deluxe reissues of the rest of his catalog.

Seriously, can anyone think of another artist who has been so cynical with his (or her) catalog? Between the "deluxe" editions of new albums that get released several months after the original version and the constant reissuing and repackaging of his catalog, the guy seems to be in business merely to bilk his dwindling, but still loyal, fanbase.

I felt borderline stupid for repurchasing Costello's catalog when Rhino reissued it, but this is just insulting. Honestly, this kind of hurts, because Costello's music has meant a lot to me over the years. I forgave the man for calling Ray Charles a "blind ignorant nigger." I forgave the man for thinking he could write classical music. I even forgave the man for dueting with John Hall. But this is just too much.

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue

Pete and I go way back. So far back that I hardly have any memories from those pre-school days. But the oldest memories that standout most certainly involve some discussion or other over music. In those days it was mostly talk of the latest new wave offerings, with maybe some talk of which Stones or Genesis Lps were worth seeking out. Since Pete had pretty much memorized the Rolling Stone Record Guide by age twelve, he was able to say with authority such things as "Goats Head Soup is unlistenable garbage." As a matter of fact, he’s probably solely responsible for that particular record not finding it’s way into my collection until 20 some years later. Which is rather odd since I had long since filled in my Stones collection. Boy, I must have been feeling particularly masochistic that day when I finally spent actual money on an album that I knew would have been better off never released.

But we certainly had a common thirst for music back then and here it is some 25 years later and I’m writing a post for his – laugh, what else? – music blog. Who wouldda thought?

So, enough reminiscing – I’m sure there will be more of that - but onto the music.

I don’t consider myself a Beach Boys fanatic and heck I don’t even own The Pet Sounds Sessions but I do consider Pacific Ocean Blue an important part of the Beach Boys legacy. Dennis Wilson crafted a uniquely individual set of songs while maintaining the distinctive harmonies that made the Beach Boys’ sound instantly identifiable. Pacific Ocean Blue has sadly been out-of-print for many years, but vinyl copies can still be tracked down relatively easily although a quick glance on ebay shows prices at least double of what I remember only a few years ago. So if there’s any correlation between rising collector’s prices and the list of reissue candidates...? Well, one can hope.

And yeah, it is a lot better than the in-print Goat’s Head Soup.

Collector's Choice Music

I complain a lot about music that should be reissued, so I wanted to cast the spotlight on a label that has reissued a lot of formerly rare albums, Collector's Choice Music. In the course of going through my record collection and looking for out-of-print music to post here, I've discovered that a lot of the records that I spent years searching for have been reissued by Collector's Choice. Here are a few of them:

Sammy Davis Jr.: Sings The Complete Dr. Doolittle. I used to have a super-cool girlfriend. On my 27th birthday this chick gave me a mint copy of Sammy Davis Jr. Sings The Complete Dr. Doolittle, plus a copy of George Jones' autobiography, I Lived To Tell It All. She must have noticed that I had spent months drooling over a copy of the record at Footlight Records in New York City, but had always balked at buying it due to the high price. Where I come from, when a woman gives you birthday presents like that, you have to marry her--so I did.

Duke Ellington: Afro Bossa, Plays Mary Poppins. You would think that an LP of the Duke Ellington Orchestra playing the music from Mary Poppins would be a sad reminder of a great band's past. You would be wrong. The album is actually a tribute to the incredible arranging talents of Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Afro Bossa is one of the very best Ellington albums from the LP era.

Phil Ochs: Tape From California, Rehearsals For Retirement/Gunfight At Carnegie Hall, All The News That's Fit To Sing, I Ain't A Marchin' Anymore. I paid way too much for a sealed copy of Tape From California at the over-priced Orpheus Records in Washington, D.C. But for years it was the only copy of the record I ran across, so I have no regrets. It's nice to see that Collector's Choice has made Ochs' difficult to find (and sometimes difficult to listen to) A&M albums available on CD.

The dB's: Stands For Decibels/Repercussion, Like This, Christmas Time Again. You might be thinking, "Collector's Choice has the dB's? But I thought they were an oldies label?" If you are thinking that, wake up you senile old coot! Collector's Choice is an oldies label. The dB's are oldies, and so are you. The dB's music is older today than the music that was featured on Happy Days or Sha-Na-Na in the 70s. So sit on it, oldster. The dB's albums have been in and out of print for years, it's nice to see they have found a home at Collector's Choice. I would like to see them reissue the currently out-of-print Sound Of Music too.

Oh-Ok: The Complete Recordings. This is the kind of thing that is surprising to find in print. Oh-Ok featured Lynda Stype, Linda Hooper (Magnapop) and Matthew Sweet. They released a couple EPs on the dB label before splitting up. This CD combines the studio records with some live material.

Let's Active: Cypress/Afoot, Big Plans For Everybody, Every Dog Has His Day. Okay, Let's Active's music is pretty easy to find on LP, still it's nice to see it kept in print. I'm guessing someone at Collector's Choice has an 80s-southern-jangle-pop fixation.

Richard Lloyd: Alchemy, Field of Fire. I can still remember how psyched I was when, after years of searching, I found a mint, white-label promo of the former Television guitarist's solo debut, Alchemy. (In fact, I can remember it quite clearly because it happened this past Saturday). White-label promos are more valuable than ordinary record pressings (or at least they used to be). Aside from mere fetishism, there is a good reason for this: they tend to be the most minty-fresh used records available. Promo records were typically the first done in a pressing, so worn-out stampers weren't used to press them. And perhaps more importantly, the fact that it's a white-label promo means the record likely belonged to someone in the music industry, which in turn means it was never played much (if at all) because--as a rule--music industry people do not actually like music. For these reasons, white-label promos tend to be highly prized by audiophiles and other people with more money than common sense.

Alchemy is a very interesting record. The music isn't much like that of Lloyd's former band, and Lloyd isn't much of a singer, but the album sounds like a rough blueprint for much of the alternative/college rock music that followed during the 80s. I'd be willing to bet Michael Stipe wore out his copy. Drug problems kept Lloyd inactive for several years until he released Field of Fire.

Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine. Tom Verlaine's first solo album does sound like his former band, Television, only not as good without Richard Lloyd to serve as co-lead guitarist. It's still a very good record though.

Collector's Choice has a ton of other reissues in print that are worth checking out. But good luck navigating their website.

Reissues - Blog Policy

As it says on the banner, I try to focus on stuff that is rare and out-of-print (i.e. things that you can't buy new and artists aren't currently receiving royalties for). My hope is that the exposure this site gives to this music will create demand for commercially available reissues, although I recognize that is a long-shot. When something I've posted is reissued, my policy is to take it down.

I recently discovered a couple things I posted have been reissued, so I took down the links to the MP3s and replaced them with a link to the item at Amazon.com. One poster helpfully pointed out that the Merle Haggard Bob Wills tribute has been reissued as a two-fer with It's All In the Movies. Amazingly, the wonderful Rev-ola label has also reissued the Fun and Games album Elephant Candy. I ordered a copy for myself, and I also highly recommend their Merry-Go-Round reissue.

I have been a little more liberal with my holiday music postings (although the vast majority of what I have posted is currently unavailable) because my plan is to take it all down after New Years. Additionally, at some point music from past months will need to be removed to make room for new stuff (I have only 500 MB of file storage, and am not inclined to pay for more). I'm pretty close to my limit now, but once I take down the holiday music I will have some breathing room. But nothing here is permanent, and I think that's probably for the best anyway.

Also, I usually post links to Amazon.com, but obviously I'm not trying to tell you where to buy your music. It's just easier for me to link there. I buy most of my music from my local independent retailer, Zingg Music.

The Fun and Games - Elephant Candy

More bubblegum pop, this time courtesy of The Fun and Games. Listening to the lyrics I get the sneaking suspicion that Elephant Candy is either some sort of elicit substance or a euphemism for knockin' boots, or possibly a euphemism for knockin' boots while on some elicit substance. Then again maybe these guys were just really fond of the concessions stand at their local zoo. Maybe I'm just too suspicious.

Elephant Candy [Now reissued! click for Amazon link]